Everyone were extremely excited over this short trip we had planned only a week before. The birthday girl decided it will be a total different experience for her and the rest to celebrate her 27th out of Singapore. Oh yes, we were damn excited alright! 2 batches, one in the morning and the other in the evening crossed the causeway towards JB. We should applaud the 2nd batch for their power will crossing the bridge by foot – and one who managed to cross safely, still with a smile with heels on. Bravo Nadine! Lesson learned, never listen to Es or Famie’s advise when it comes to traveling. Do you know how long the 1st batch girls have to wait for you people for dinner? Haaa.

While walking towards That’s Cafe for dinner, something caught us by surprise. Flocks of youngsters filled up the whole street. A flea market was ON! So as you can imagine, our seats were fast empty after we ordered our food. Why wait when you can use the waiting time to shop? Food arrived only an hour later, for some cases – (Zoe’s chicken chop) NEVER! Can’t blame them, the whole place were packed and some orders got mixed up. I’m sorry for you babe.

By midnight, we moved across the street to My Little Corner to celebrate An’s not so surprise birthday! But we sure did make her move into tears when the guys presented some songs for her. Hope you like it babe and Elvis, thanks for the bottles of wine. The day ended at 3 in the morning.

The next morning, while having breakfast, we were greeted with locals with white cloth wrapped around their songkoks. Just when we’re done with our plates of delicious roti canai, we saw flyers given out by the state’s offiicials to shop owners around the streets. That’s weird. We proceeded to the nearest mall to do some shopping and abruptly got ridden out of the mall at 1pm. What was this ruckus all about? We got our answer. The Sultan of Johor had just passed. Now that our shopping plan was brought to a halt, we decided to bring back some drinks and food back to the hotel. But guess what? All the shops were closed! Even the 24-hour 7-11 stores had to be shut down!

However, we managed to get some drinks back, don’t ask me where and how. It might sound illegal. Haha. In the end, we cooped ourselves in a room, surviving only on a few cans of drinks, 2 small pints of Baskin Robbins, few packs of M&Ms and some vintage crackers to satisfied our hunger and thirst for the whole day. 😦 All these while watching the live burial ceremony of the Sultan on TV3. So much for shopping. Bleargh.

Nonetheless, at the end of the day, most shops/stalls were allowed to be opened and so we managed to grab some seafood for dinner after hours of wandering around the empty streets like hungry zombies yearning for brains. Yeay!

We started our day with full enthusiasm, with lots in mind too. Putting together a “Farewell” book for Shawn who will be leaving for his further studies in KL in a span of less than 3 hours was crazy. There were 30 photos to be printed along with a 15-minute artwork I did the night before. So here’s the problem, my printer has been dead for almost a year now and the chances of spotting a “printing” shop around Parkway Parade is as hard as spotting a Thai transvestite among the ladies in Singapore (mind you, these Thai trans are damn gorgeous I tell you, but that’s another story. Haaa!).

However, we managed to get it printed from a game store across the street for FREE! The puppy-eyes trick did work! The printed artwork was bad though, we couldn’t ask for more..it’s printed free from a printer with almost dried ink. But hey, those lines looked cool anyway. Shawn might just thought it’s intentional. 😛

So we cooped ourselves inside an extremely chilly joint and began our “project”. Thanks Es for running to and fro to the mart to get stuffs, Dave for being the first Canadian karung-guni man in Singapore for the day, An for the whole idea and Zoe for her cute supposedly-lotus drawing. Haha.

Finally, we left for Shawn’s…4 hours later. By then, it was close to 9pm when we reached his place. It was meant to be a surprise but blame those cute fluffy cats along the pavement towards his place. We just had to pat them and scream how cute looking they were. We caught Shawn’s attention who was at the porch entertaining a few of his friends. Bleargh.

The book was presented to the about-to-leave-us boy while we start munching on Hirman’s cooked noodles and sangria! Shawn looked pretty surprised with our “project” until he decided to surprise us back.

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“Hey guys, I decided..I’m not leaving Singapore..”

“Whaaaatttt?!!!!”

Okay, can we get the book back? All those time wasted. Haha..but hey, we’re happy you’re not leaving us just yet. So, welcome back Shawn Kiyotaka Fukuzaki!

Another excuse to hangout till late night. Nice place dude. If the rent was cheaper, all of us could be your neighbors and we can turn Changi into the best hangout place in Singapore! Haaa.

Yes, we missed the countdown again this year. Haaa. Apparently the time on our screen lagged 4 minutes. So there, new year was abruptly announced by the loud booming sound of the fireworks across the sky!

It was the first for me to celebrate NYE away from homeland and I don’t regret any minutes of it. I really gotta thank the companions around me, it made my eve one of the best so far.

Spent the day tasting street food, bargain shopping, relaxing at my little corner, listening to great music by the ever so talented Eswandy, being around the best bunch of friends and celebrating new year away from the typical crowd in Singapore, I couldn’t ask for more (except for the occasional air horn-ing by tactless local Mats around the area who thinks it was cool to do it right in the faces of people surrounding the area).

Also, gotta thank Elvis for being a great host. We definitely love your place and will be looking forward to hangout there again. I’m certain I have fallen for your red plum ice blended..haa!

Woke up on 1st Janurary 2010 to a magnificent view, what a great day to start 2010. Time to unpack and wash my dirty laundry.